US Municipal Credit Report, Second Quarter 2017

The municipal bond credit report is a quarterly report on the trends and statistics of U.S. municipal bond market, both taxable and tax-exempt. Issuance volumes, outstanding, credit spreads, highlights and commentary are included.

Summary

According to Thomson Reuters, long-term public municipal issu-ance volume totaled $100.7 billion in the second quarter of 2017, an increase of 16.3 percent from the prior quarter ($86.6 billion) but a decline of 15.8 percent year-over-year (y-o-y) ($119.5 billion). As of the end of June, year-to-date municipal issuance totaled $187.2 bil-lion and was generally in line with the 10-year average of $185.7 bil-lion. Including private placements ($4.6 billion), long-term munici-pal issuance for 2Q’17 was $105.1 billion.

Tax-exempt issuance totaled $87.6 billion in 2Q’17, an increase of 14.4 percent q-o-q but a decline of 16.9 percent y-o-y; year to date, tax-exempt issuance was $164.2 billion. Taxable issuance totaled $9.3 billion in 2Q’17, an increase of 29.0 percent q-o-q and an increase of 36.4 percent y o y; year to date, taxable issuance totaled $16.6 billion. AMT issuance was $3.7 billion in 2Q’17, an increase of 35.3 percent q-o-q but a decline of 48.3 percent y-o-y; year to date, AMT volumes were $6.5 billion.

By use of proceeds, general purpose led issuance totals in 2Q’17 ($22.0 billion), followed by primary & secondary education ($20.6 billion) and water & sewer facilities ($10.4 billion). Refunding vol-umes rose slightly to comprise 40.8 percent of issuance in 2Q’17 from 34.2 percent in the prior quarter but were a decline from 51.5 percent year-over-year.